Perry gets Forbes endorsement

posted at 12:05 pm on October 24, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

Call this post “the good, the bad, and the ugly” for Rick Perry today to start off a new week for his campaign. He clearly wanted to start with a boost, and had fiscal-conservative icon Steve Forbes on Fox News yesterday with an endorsement of the Texas governor, tied to the upcoming release of Perry’s economic recovery plan based on the Flat Tax that Forbes himself championed in the 1990s:

On Tuesday, Rick Perry will unveil his economic plan which includes measures to drastically reform the tax code and lower the corporate tax rate. It will also, he says, provide generous exemptions for “adults and for children.” Unlike Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan, however, Perry’s plan will not include a sales tax. Forbes asserts that this small but significant difference, coupled with the governor’s “firm leadership,” are reasons why he is endorsing Perry’s candidacy.

Unfortunately, the Austin Statesman hit the newsstands yesterday before Forbes’ appearance with an attempt to dent Perry’s record of fiscal success in Texas, although they have to reach back to the 1990s for the story:

Over his eight years as Texas’ farmer-in-chief, Perry oversaw a loan guarantee program with so many defaults that the state had to stop guaranteeing bank loans to startups in agribusiness and eventually bailed out the program with taxpayer money.

The state auditor panned Perry’s claims of creating jobs and criticized Perry and his fellow board members at the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority for not following their own lending guidelines.

In some instances, the auditor said, Perry and the authority guaranteed loans to applicants with a negative net worth or too much debt. Citing growing debts, the auditor finally suggested that state officials consider dismantling the program.

Even as the first alarms were sounded, Perry defended the program, saying no taxpayer money was at risk, blaming others and claiming he had fixed it.

There is something vaguely familiar about the end result:

By 2009, her successor, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, also a Republican, asked the Legislature to pay off the loan guarantees with a $14.7 million appropriation. The finance authority could no longer afford the $541,000 to cover the annual interest on the bad debts, almost all of which dated back to Perry’s tenure.

“It’s bad,” Staples told the American-Statesman at the time. “Unfortunately, taxpayers are on the hook for something that happened as long ago as 1987.”

In effect, Perry, as governor, signed his own government bailout when he approved the 2009 appropriations bill.

In the end, loans that Perry approved had a default rate of nearly 30%. That overwhelmed the revenue generated by the good loans and created a sinkhole that taxpayers ended up filling in the end. The amount of money lost was far less significant than the one loan to Solyndra by the federal government in 2009, and nothing in the Statesman’s report suggests that the guarantees were issued to benefit political cronies, as was the case with more than one of the green-tech subsidies issued by the Obama administration. However, the loan guarantees ended up costing Texas taxpayers, for the similar purpose of government-subsidized job creation — only this time in agriculture rather than alternative energy.

On top of that, Perry seems to have forgotten a lesson learned in the 2010 gubernatorial elections. The once-promising campaign of Perry’s Tea Party challenger, Deborah Medina, imploded when she flirted with 9/11 Trutherism. In an interview with the usually soft-news outlet Parade Magazine, Perry sounds as if he wants to flirt with the Birthers this time around:

Governor, do you believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States?I have no reason to think otherwise.

That’s not a definitive, “Yes, I believe he”—
Well, I don’t have a definitive answer, because he’s never seen my birth certificate.

But you’ve seen his.I don’t know. Have I?

You don’t believe what’s been released?I don’t know. I had dinner with Donald Trump the other night.

And?That came up.
And he said?He doesn’t think it’s real.

And you said?I don’t have any idea. It doesn’t matter. He’s the President of the United States. He’s elected. It’s a distractive issue.

Yikes. Did Perry see just how well this issue worked out for Trump back in May? It’s bad enough to have self-absorbed celebrity candidates offer this kind of nonsense during a Republican primary that should be focusing on Obama’s disastrous economic policies. Now we’ll have to endure another round of conspiracy theories that make Obama look like a victim and Republicans look like nutcases. If Perry couldn’t see that trouble coming and know to avoid it with a “Yes, he was born in Hawaii, and his economic policies were born in the offices of the SEIU,” then I’m pretty sure the Flat Tax and the Forbes endorsement isn’t going to help him much.

Blowback

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Meanwhile, Romney locks up NH icon and three term gov. John Sununu (no blog). And Romney announces that he is touring GOP offices in Virginia with Gov McDonnell tomorrow. (Endorsement to come in a couple weeks)

I think Perry and Cain are my favorites right now. Nobody in the running is perfect though.

But one thing about Perry, if he campaigns on something, then he will push extremely hard for it when elected. His downside has always been the stuff that no one hears about. He let the North Texas Tolltag Authority take over too many new highways being built in the DFW metroplex. That could be that he is truly for private ownership or corporate cronyism, who knows. But most would agree that roads is one of the few things that the govt should be taking care of.

What a horrible post. I expected to see a deliberative reading of the Forbes endorsement with something about the efficacy of a flat tax. Instead, its a post about the waxing and waning of the entire campaign, on items not exactly related to each other.

At least Rick is getting some airtime now. Herman had gotten it all for two weeks.

But why does Perry’s copy catting the Forbes 14 year old Flat Tax qualify Perry as a reformer? Perry never heard of it until he saw his campaign sinking from people disappointed in Perry’s personality they saw in debates.

Perry’s best bet is to push what he understands which is effectively outlawing attorney’s contingent fees.That is what his personal Texas caps on damages and loser pays laws have done in Texas.

Gosh darn it I just hate having a job and not paying state income tax and having right-to-carry and not having to join a union as a condition of employment.I forgot-I really hate living in the most conservative county in the nation.
Ya know-he’s right. We really should just toss our gear in the U-Haul and rush back to Ch-Town where it’s so much better than here.
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Hey Cozmo, what’s the unemployment in your state of perfection that is obviously not Texas, asks the Texan. You want a free clue, Texans don’t take insults to our state lying down. Having fun in Taxachusetts, Yankee?

And you said?
I don’t have any idea. It doesn’t matter. He’s the President of the United States. He’s elected. It’s a distractive issue.

It looks like someone is trying to take over the news cycle, that’s filled right with Herman Cain right now. You can’t change the topic in the news cycle without a controversial sound bite. That’s how the media works, and is easily manipulated -sensationalism. Morning Joe took the bait this morning.

I love Tax policy, and Steve has some great economic ideas but it’s a little too late for worrying about a Flat Tax Steve, we’re in the midst of a Global transformation. But I think you know that already.

“It’s bad,” Staples told the American-Statesman at the time. “Unfortunately, taxpayers are on the hook for something that happened as long ago as 1987.”

Well isn’t that amazing? Especially since Perry didn’t become Ag Commish until 1991. Oh, wait! He defeated Ag Commissioner Jim Hightower, who makes Obama look like Mitt Romney! Ol’ Jim was a high spending fool as AC. Sounds like somebody wants Rick to get the rap for someone else besides himself.

I hate to be the bearer of disappointing news for Perry supporters, but Forbes’s endorsement is a tree falling in the forest. He endorsed Giuliani last time and look how well that turned out! It meant just about as much as… well, Perry’s endorsemetn of Giuliani!

I hate to be the bearer of disappointing news for Perry supporters, but Forbes’s endorsement is a tree falling in the forest. He endorsed Giuliani last time and look how well that turned out! It meant just about as much as… well, Perry’s endorsemetn of Giuliani!
athenanyc on October 24, 2011 at 2:06 PM

Also, since both he and his flat-tax idea have already been rejected twice by Republican voters, this probably won’t be of much help in rescuing the Perry campaign.

So this site is turning into the anti-Perry site in favor of Romney and Cain neither one of who can get out their conservative credentials put forward without having to keep explaining.

The hatred of Texas and the Governor by the east coast ‘liberal’ types and the Paulbots is showing big time on here. Paulbots have always been after Perry and not disappointed by seeing their comments today although looks like some establishment types have turned out as well.

Some of you might not like Steve Forbes but there are a lot of people who think he should have been President in 2000. Who else was he going to endorse in 2008 from that weak field. Romney is running again and now Cain who doesn’t even understand the roll of the President or the Constitution.

Some of the comments make me laugh as some of you keep up your pretense you are a conservative. Any conservative who thinks would not support flip floppers!

Thus far I haven’t been swayed by any endorsement one way or the other. Not that it can’t happen but my givadamn button is yet to be pushed. I suspect all these endorsements just nibble at the margins, but who knows, that may be enough to nudge someone over the top. I’m still hovering around Romney – never! and everyone else – maybe.
Oh, and Ron Paul…only if I get hold of some bad LSD.